https://www.scmp.com/rss/508782/feed Born and raised in the suburbs of London, Russell Thomas writes on topics as diverse as history, culture, travel, music and food. After working as a music news editor, he travelled extensively around East and Southeast Asia, and now lives in Tokyo. His work has been featured in publications such as The Guardian, The Japan Times and The Fader. He is the founder of long-running music blog yesnomusic. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Of the many aspects of Japanese culture, from martial arts to manga, that have found themselves exported and beloved the world over, the country’s cuisine is perhaps the best known. Japanese food is almost synonymous with high quality, healthy dining, with dishes and ingredients making their way onto menus globally, and not just in Japanese restaurants. Furikake seasoning, panko breadcrumbs, kombu seaweed, dashi stock, miso, mushrooms marketed with Japanese names – it all presents an allure that... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3264208/what-washoku-japanese-cuisine-unesco-heritage-list-it-depends-who-you-ask?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3264208/what-washoku-japanese-cuisine-unesco-heritage-list-it-depends-who-you-ask?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 May 2024 04:55:25 +0000 “So this is pregnancy. What luxury. What loneliness.” So goes the internal utterance of Ms Shibata, the protagonist of Diary of a Void. But Shibata, a 34-year-old office worker, is not pregnant. The premise is simple. One day at work, she refuses to undertake a menial task not in her job description. “Why? What’s going on?” asks her section head. “I’m pregnant,” Shibata replies. Her inner monologue, the narrative head space in which the book is set, announces on the next line: “And that’s how I... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3192862/humdrum-office-worker-longs-unknowable-so-pretends?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3192862/humdrum-office-worker-longs-unknowable-so-pretends?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Sep 2022 11:15:08 +0000 Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata, pub. Grove Press “Normal is a type of madness, isn’t it? I think it’s just that the only madness society allows is called normal.” So muses a fateful bystander in “Life Ceremony”, the title tale in Sayaka Murata’s new collection of short stories. The life ceremony, a macabre celebration concocted by Murata – author of Convenience Store Woman (2016), for which she won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, and Earthlings (2018) – is a reaction to a world with declining... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3186993/cannibalism-casual-couplings-human-body-parts-turned?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3186993/cannibalism-casual-couplings-human-body-parts-turned?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Jul 2022 11:15:09 +0000 A December 2021 survey found that almost two-thirds of Hong Kong residents were unhappy with life in the city and that one in five wanted to leave. The cost of living – from ever-increasing property prices to the rising prices of vegetables – and the prolonged Covid-19 social distancing restrictions and difficulty in travelling is making a move abroad, whether temporary or permanent, seem an attractive proposition for some. Moving, though, is no simple process. It’s downright stressful. It’s not... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3175126/moving-home-stressful-zen-buddhist-monk-offers-advice?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3175126/moving-home-stressful-zen-buddhist-monk-offers-advice?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Apr 2022 08:15:19 +0000 “It is not a quiet experience, skiing Hokkaido snow,” says Hong Kong-born Felix Lai, a guide for ski company Ninja Powder. “It is a rapturous experience.” Lai has been an enthusiastic advocate for skiing on the northern Japanese island ever since being “mesmerised” on his first visit, in 2013. Owing to Covid-19 restrictions, however, he’s missed two ski seasons – in a normal year he’d spend three months in Hokkaido – and is currently based in Cornwall, in Britain, where he works as a veterinary... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3168344/ski-resorts-japan-bankrupted-covid-19-ban-arrivals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3168344/ski-resorts-japan-bankrupted-covid-19-ban-arrivals?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 27 Feb 2022 23:15:15 +0000 Chances are you haven’t heard of peixinhos da horta: green beans dipped in batter and fried. It’s a Portuguese dish. Fasting days, imposed by the Catholic Church and known as têmporas, on which no meat could be consumed, resulted in this dish, whose name literally translates to “little fish from the garden”. But chances are you have heard of its descendant: tempura (yes, it’s not Japanese in origin). According to legend, in 1543 a Chinese ship en route to Macau with its crew and three Portuguese... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3167343/how-japan-claimed-ramen-curry-and-tempura-its-own-despite?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3167343/how-japan-claimed-ramen-curry-and-tempura-its-own-despite?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Feb 2022 04:45:21 +0000 Japan’s most famous beer makers – Asahi, Kirin, Suntory and Sapporo – are as well-known as any Japanese electronics company or car manufacturer in the country and their drinks are consumed widely across the world. But many of the best Japanese beers are seen little outside the nation. Japanese people love beer, and the country is in the midst of a craft beer renaissance first sparked by a revision to the Liquor Tax Law in 1994, which allowed small-scale breweries to operate by greatly reducing... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3158902/japanese-beer-isnt-all-asahi-kirin-and-sapporo-craft-beers-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3158902/japanese-beer-isnt-all-asahi-kirin-and-sapporo-craft-beers-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Dec 2021 04:45:22 +0000 For those not yet aware, Jesus Christ is buried in Japan. Yes, the Son of God flees Judea around AD33, leaving his brother, “Isukiri”, crucified in his place, and with another brother’s ears and a lock of his mother’s hair as mementos, our fugitive Lord and Saviour sets out for the far-flung Japanese archipelago, where he settles in Herai, Mutsu province (now Shingo, Aomori prefecture), becomes a rice farmer, marries, sires three children, and dies aged 106. The legend is commemorated in the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3158158/japans-history-religion-shinto-and-buddhism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3158158/japans-history-religion-shinto-and-buddhism?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Dec 2021 23:50:09 +0000 Okunoshima is not unique among the some 3,000 islands dotting Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, between Hiroshima prefecture and the island of Shikoku. Neither the biggest nor the smallest, the tiny land mass measures less than a square kilometre. There’s no natural water supply – that’s shipped in from the mainland – and as of 2010, only 26 people live on the island, but Okunoshima is far better known for its population of four-legged residents. There is a strange propensity in Japan to name islands... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3120466/japans-rabbit-island-okunoshima-has-dark-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3120466/japans-rabbit-island-okunoshima-has-dark-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Feb 2021 01:15:06 +0000